1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of cordless communication devices, and more particularly to a cordless communication device having message queuing capability.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Communication systems, such as cellular communication systems, utilize a control channel to enable communication devices, such as portable hand held transceivers, to register into the system. Once contact has been made between the portable hand held transceiver and a cell site controller over the control channel, the portable hand held transceiver is then directed to a data or voice channel on which the actual communication will take place. When more portable hand held transceivers are attempting to gain access to the system than can be supported by the number of data or voice channels available at the cell site, the control channel enables the cell site controller to identify the portable hand held transceivers which are attempting access to the system, and places the portable hand held transceivers in a call waiting queue until a data or voice channel becomes available. The cell site controller, through the control channel, then accesses the portable hand held transceiver having been in queue the longest, and directs the portable hand held transceiver to the open data or voice channel. In this manner, even when the system is fully loaded, all portable hand held transceivers have an opportunity to register into the system and to be provided with an open data or voice channel in the order in which the portable hand held transceivers attempted to gain access to the system.
There are, however, some communication systems, such as the second generation cordless telephone (CT2) systems which do not provide a control channel to enable access to the system by the portable radiotelephone handsets operating in the system, such as handsets. Consequently, in such systems, when all channels are busy, there is no way to queue other handsets attempting to place a call. There is a need to be able to provide queuing for handsets operating in such systems in order to improve the grade of performance provided by the system.